Grand Mufti criticizes researcher for citing Sayed Kotb

CAIRO – 25 June 2018: Egypt’s Grand Mufti, Shawki Allam, criticized an Al-Azhar researcher for using the writings of Sayed Kotb, a former leading Muslim brotherhood figure, as a reference in his PhD research.

While formally examining a PhD research, Allam criticized that some Al-Azhar scholars depend on the writings of some extremists and cite them in their researches, considering that such action distorts the image of Islam and paves the way for intellectual extremism.

Subsequently, MP Shoukry al-Gendy of the Religious Committee called on Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, Egypt’s top religious authority, and the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs to fight the extremist ideology as it contradicts with the true essence of Islam that called for equality, mercy and justice, according to media reports.

MP Mohamed Abu Hamed of the Social Solidarity Committee said that state and Islamic institutions have to warn against Kotb’s thoughts, claiming that some elements inside the Islamic institutions tend to adopt Muslim Brotherhood’s thoughts.

Omar Hamroush, Secretary of the Parliament’s Religious Affairs and Endowments Committee affirmed that his committee made sure that Al-Azhar books were devoid of extremist ideas after a committee from Al-Azhar worked on removing extremist thoughts from books in 2014.


President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has repeatedly affirmed in his speeches the importance of reforming religious discourse, while Al-Azhar has subsequently sought ways to immunize young people against radicalism and train scholars to fight extremism.

The Muslim Brotherhood organization has been designated by the Egyptian authorities as a terrorist group following the ouster of former MB affiliated President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

Dozens of policemen and hundreds of Morsi supporters lost their lives during the dispersal of pro-Morsi protests in Al-Nahda and Rabaa Al-Adaweya squares following the ousting of Morsi. The two parties hold each other responsible for the violence.

MB author and thinker Sayed Kotb was executed by the Egyptian state in 1966 after being convicted of planning to assassinate late President Gamal Abdel Nasser who ruled Egypt for about 14 years until he died in 1970.


In a video broadcasted by the Abu-Dhabi-based News Eye Gate in June, men of the LNA appeared in military uniforms in the partially liberated Libyan city of Derna, pouring gasoline on some “takfiri books”, including books of Sayed Kotb, considering him as “the guide of terrorism in Derna”.

Describing persons or books as “takfiri” commonly means that they adopt a violent approach toward others based on Islamic beliefs that are misunderstood and subsequently misused to justify violent actions and terrorist attacks.